Photography has played a key role throughout the Refugee Hosts project, not only ‘documenting’ (or ‘archiving’) the dynamics taking place across the camps, cities and towns in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey where we have been conducting research, but also as a means of reflecting on the process of research itself. Many of these images have been included both as ‘featured images’ in our blog posts, but also as part of the photo-poetic reflections written by our PI Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, and our Writer in Residence, Yousif M. Qasmiyeh, which you can read here.
The majority of these photographs were taken by Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, who has written extensively on representations of displacement (including here), with photographs also taken and collected by Refugee Hosts’ local researcher Leonie Harsch (see her reflections on archival images and refugee representation here and here).
Click on the images below for image captions and locations, and scroll to the end of the page to access blogs on photography and other photo-poetic reflections by Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh and Yousif M. Qasmiyeh.
Baddawi Camp and Jebel al-Baddawi (North Lebanon)
The following are photographs taken by Refugee Hosts PI, Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh in Baddawi refugee camp and the adjacent Jebel al-Baddawi neighbourhood (N. Lebanon), and include photographs of the spaces and infrastructure which has been ‘shared’ and recreated (and at times contested) by the different residents of the camp and neighbourhood: Palestinians, Syrians, Iraqis, Kurds and Lebanese alike. You can read and view Elena’s photo-essays on Baddawi as a ‘refugee hosting’ space here, here and here; her and Yousif M. Qasmiyeh’s reflections on the Baddawi camp cemeteries here; and their photo-poetic reflections on Baddawi camp here.
Beirut (Lebanon)
The following photos were taken in Beirut, including in the neighbourhood of Hamra and during writing workshops co-convened by Prof. Lyndsey Stonebridge and Writer in Residence, Yousif M. Qasmiyeh, which drew upon historical photographs of Hamra which Refugee Hosts researcher, Leonie Harsch, has written about here. The photographs include different places where donations can be made, and collected, in addition to examples of resisting xenophobic rhetoric through ‘correcting’ graffiti (which our PI, Prof. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh writes about here). You can read more about Bayan Itani’s experiences of conducting research in Hamra here; and listen to soundscapes of Hamra here.
Irbid, Jarash, Zarqaa and Amman (Jordan)
The following are a section of photographs taken in Jordan, including in and around Irbid, Jarash and Zarqaa and Amman. A number of photographs were taken by Refugee Hosts PI, Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, during writing workshops convened by Refugee Hosts’ Writer in Residence, Yousif M. Qasmiyeh with Co-I Prof. Lyndsey Stonebridge. In these workshops, archival photographs from Lebanon and Jordan were an important point of reference, stimulating conversation and debate amongst participants. Equally, participants brought items and objects which were particular significance to them – these objects were shared and discussed with the group. You can read more about the workshops here.
Istanbul and Izmir (Turkey)
The following photos were taken in Turkey, including in Istanbul and Izmir. The photographs focus on everyday spaces of encounter, including on the busy streets of Beyoglu and Fatih (both of which are home to many refugees from Syria, and are also frequented by tourists from across the Middle East), where signs in Arabic and Turkish announce services for residents, tourists and refugees alike; to more hidden sites of sanctuary, such as a church in Istanbul; or sites of transit on the Aegean coast. You can read more about Dr Anna Rowland’s reflections on research in Turkey here; listen to soundscapes of Istanbul here; or see photos by Ufuk Öztürk, including reflections on how communities emerge in sites of transit.
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Below are a series of blogs and photo essays focusing on representations of displacement and a collection of photo poetic reflections by Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh and Yousif M. Qasmiyeh.
Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2018) Disrupting Humanitarian Narratives: Introduction to the Representations of Displacement Series
Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2018) Reflections from the Field: Introduction to the Series
Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2018) Shadows and Echoes in/of Displacement: Temporalities, spatialities and materialities of displacement
Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2017) ‘Invisible (at) night: space, time and photography in a refugee camp’
Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2016) ‘Refugee-Refugee Relationality: Hospitality and ‘Being With’ Refugees’
Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2016) ‘Palestinian and Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: Sharing Space, Electricity and the Sky’
Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. and Qasmiyeh, Y. M. (2018) ‘Refugee Neighbours & Hostipitality’
Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. and Qasmiyeh, Y. M. (2017) ‘Refugee-Refugee Solidarity in Death and Dying’
Harsch, L. (2018) ‘Historical Photos of Hamra, Beirut’
Harsch, L. (2018) ‘Random Acts of Kindness:’ Reflections on Everyday Responses to Displacement in Hamra
Lokot, M. (2018) ‘Mobility, Hope and the ‘Appropriation’ of Space: Reflections from a Photovoice Project’
Qasmiyeh, Y. M. (2016) ‘Writing the Camp’
Qasmiyeh, Y. M. (2017) ‘Refugees are Dialectical Beings Part One and Part Two’
Qasmiyeh, Y. M. and Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2019) The Third Voice and Third Eye in our Photo-Poetic Reflections
Qasmiyeh, Y. M. and Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2018) ‘The Wall’
Qasmiyeh, Y. M. and Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2018) ‘To the Plants is Her Face’
Qasmiyeh, Y. M. and Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, E. (2013) “Refugee Camps and Cities in Conversation,” in Jane Garnett and Alana Harris (eds) Rescripting Religion in the City: Migration and Religious Identity in the Modern Metropolis, Farnham: Ashgate. pp. 131-143.
Stonebridge, L. and Qasmiyeh, Y. M. (2017) ‘Time Machine: Stereoscopic Views from Palestine, 1900’
Featured image: Shadows in Baddawi refugee camp, Lebanon. (c) E. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh.
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